Is Jesus Knocking at Your Door?

Christ at Heart's Door, by Warner Sallman

Dear Friends,

By 5 pm on any given day, each of us has opened or closed roughly a dozen doors. To open or close a door is a natural, unthinking act- unless we have forgotten our key or our arms are too full to manage the door.

Doors are an integral part of life. They provide passageway to where we want to go. They offer us privacy or protection from unwanted elements. Doors are also instruments of power. We can shut people out or admit them.

Advent is a time for opening some doors and closing others. It’s a time to open the door to a deeper, stronger relationship with the Holy One, to open our hearts to new and renewed relationships with people, to open our minds to new attitudes, practices and ways of thinking that birth in us a future full of hope.

Maybe you can recall seeing the well known painting by the artist, Warner Sallman, which shows Jesus standing at the door and knocking? Jesus comes to the door of the human heart, knocks and waits for an invitation to enter. The outside of the door has no knob, which says that the human heart can only be opened from within. We have the power to welcome or refuse entry.

In order to hear Jesus’ knock, we need to be awake
 – awake to His coming here and now
 - awake to His coming birthday 
 - awake to His coming at the end of time.

Are you continually alert? I’m not. We get distracted by the sheer business of our lives.
Being busy is not a bad thing, unless it prevents us from doing the work of Advent, which is to welcome God into our lives in fresh new ways.

The knock comes, and we react to it in different ways. We may be cautious, curious to see who’s there, irritated to be interrupted, ashamed that our house is not in order. We may be curt at the door, guarded, fearful, elated – or we may ignore the knock completely. Go away, God! I don’t want to see you today.

You may think that this idea of opening some doors and closing others is a mild-mannered approach to Advent. But let’s think about two doors to close which require personal discipline and hard work.

Close the door to noise, even briefly everyday and welcome quiet to let the gifts of the season seep into our consciousness. Be with the silence. “Well. Ok,” you might say, “but then what do I say to God?” Say “Come, Lord Jesus!” or maybe say nothing at all. Let God speak to you in the silence.

Close the door to violence. Isaiah talks about beating our swords into plowshares, i.e. making peace with what could be the weapons of war. We are surrounded by war and violence in our culture, we find it in the words we say to one another, in our subtle lack of respect for people, things and ourselves. We need not support violence, participate in it, give it a place in our homes, encourage it or buy it.

As we move through Advent, two figures help us open our doors to Jesus knocking.

Mary, who did not let her hesitation keep her from extending a welcome to the invitation of God. Mary is every person who has stood at the door of an unknown future and said Yes.

Jesus is called the Key of David, in the ancient collection of Advent prayers called the O antiphons:
   
Jesus, Key of David, is the one who opens and no one shuts, the one who shuts and no one opens.

Jesus is the key to our future.

During Advent, let the physical doors we open and close throughout the day remind us that our comings and goings are opportunities to meet and welcome Emmanuel, to offer kindness, a cookie, a cup of teas to others.

The key is in the lock.
The divine visitor is at our Advent door.
Don’t open it a crack. Open it wide.

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Savoring Sacred Spaces

Happy Thanksgiving, dear friend and reader!

We took a winding road up to a site overlooking the Sea of Galilee – an avid group of pilgrims and a wiry, knowledgeable, Israeli guide named Menahan Hefetz. This is the place, Menana Hefetz  told us, where Jesus fed the 5000. A hush fell over the group, each of us taking in every contour of the land, going over the text in our minds, moved by emotions of awe and joy that surprised us with their strength.

On that sunny day twenty- one centuries ago, the hunger of the people was satisfied and there were leftovers. Jesus had fed them all.  Since then, the spot had become a holy place – but unlike other holy places, no commemorative building was erected there. It was left as a meadow, a sacred space.

Sacred spaces are those places where something unique happened:  something unrepeatable, forever impressive and memorable. Before you read on, stop to think of your own sacred spaces.

People need sacred space like Plymouth Rock and the World Trade Center. People create shrines in places where people have died as victims of tragedy or accident. In times of great need, people go to sacred spaces, or we create them or recognize them buried within the ordinary.

One reason the nation’s highways and airways are clogged these days is because people are going home, going to be with loved ones. Home is a sacred space. We know the smell of it, the foods that are repeatedly served there, the couch that everyone claims, the old tree in the backyard that’s good for climbing.

The sacred space of home.
The sacred space of our hearts and memories.
The Christian sacred space on the hillside over the Sea of Galilee and the upper room in Jerusalem.
The sacred space at the table of the Lord in our own churches.

We need them to live and grow.

Today, let’s let our mind’s eye  rove among the sacred spaces of this earth and thank God for them.  Our  own  beloved sacred spaces – yes!  and the sacred spaces of others as well.

On Thursday, when we celebrate Thanksgiving I hope we embrace people all over the world savoring their sacred spaces, weeping as the Philippine people weep over the sacred spaces that have been destroyed. I hope we take time for Eucharist on Thanksgiving Day, which for us disciples of the Lord Jesus,  our  Savior and Brother, is the sacred space that is more important than any other. Here all are welcome with all their emotions, needs, sorrows and delights. 

My colleague at Nativity Church, Brockport, Father Ted Auble, says that the Eucharistic table is very long. It extends in both  directions, to the deep past and into the hazy future. All are welcome at this table.

 Are all welcome in your own personal sacred space?

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Let's Talk About Family

 

Dear Friends,


On the Sunday after Christmas, the church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family.  Looking out last Sunday over our parishioners at The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  Brockport, it occurred to me that the time to start talking about families is now (all the better to celebrate the Holy Family later this year.)

We are entering into a long period when families get together, remember people who have died or for whatever reason, won’t be with us this season: Thanksgiving, Advent, the whole Christmas season.

So let’s talk about families, which come in all sorts of sizes and shapes: traditional two-parent families, single-parent families, couples who have no children, families of choice, blended or adoptive families. Single people have extended kinships that are, for them, family. Religious congregations are families, so are intentional families, the families of our neighborhood and world.

Family life is precious- whether it is our own personal family, where our weaknesses are accommodated and our victories applauded or whether it is the family of the universe to which we belong. This is a time to consider the ones who are  alienated from our family and what can be done to restore that relationship.

As we gather over the next six weeks or so, I hope we can bear within us the consciousness of the companionship of God, who helps us deepen and treasure the many aspects of family life, and actively cultivate respectful, tender attitudes toward one another. God is our model in this, since God is a family. God loves families with a lasting love and wants our various families to be whole.

Here’s a helpful summary of the power and value of family offered by  the moral theologian, James B. Nelson:

    Each of us needs a place where the gifts of life make us more human, where we are linked with ongoing covenants with others, where we can return to lick our wounds, where we can take our shoes off and where we know that within the bound of human capacity, we are loved simply because we are. Because that human need will not die, the need for the family will not die. That human need and its fulfillment are one more reason for giving thanks on Thanksgiving Day.

    Gracious God, hold our family close to You. In our comings and goings, let our hands and hearts show welcome to all who belong to us. Help us to realize they belong to You as well. We pray in the name of our Brother and Lord, Jesus, and with the tenderness of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Crown of Thorns..Is it Your Story?

Dear Friends,

This is a true story. It is also a version of our own stories, but first, the story.

My mother, Celia had a friend named Laura, who lived a few blocks away in Friendly Village, Manchester, NY. Laura’s deepening illness took her first to the hospital, and then to a nursing home. Laura never came back to her home again.

Celia and a few friends were hired by Laura’s lawyer to help prepare the house for sale. Laura had been away from the house for seven months, so the air was stale and dust was everywhere. The lawyer had provided a dumpster, so that the women could discard all the things that had no obvious value.

On an accent table in the corner of the living room was a pot with dried soil and in the soil what looked like a stick. Celia took the pot outside, but couldn’t make herself throw it into the dumpster. First she set in on the ground next to the dumpster. A few days later, she picked it up and put it on a table on the patio. Then she put it in her car. Celia didn’t know what this plant was, but it had taken hold of her and she couldn’t heave it away.

With  biblical care, she placed it in her living room where the bright morning sun could warm it. She watered it, and yes, talked to it. The stick  began to enlarge as water flowed through its length. Eventually, bright green leaves appeared and tiny pink flowers. The plant was … a crown of thorns. The year the crown of thorns came from Laura’s home to Celia’s was 1986.  Now, 27 years later, it thrives at a friend’s home, bright with flowers and stands almost seven feet tall.

You can probably see a variety of ways the story of the crown of thorns is your story as well. I certainly do.

Have we been neglected, unwatered. Have we been left to die? What God-figure has taken us home, watered us, talked with us, placed us in bright sunshine? Have we grown seven feet tall?  Have we been Celia for others?

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Prepare Your Heart for Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,

Miriam has just put enough cooked squash into her freezer for the eighteen people who are coming to Thanksgiving dinner at her home. The fresh turkey is ordered, all the phone calls are made to give others their assignments. Now, Miriam, our Nativity Brockport parishioner says she can take time to prepare her heart for Thanksgiving. “No sense celebrating on the surface”, she told me last Sunday. “Thanksgiving has to be in here (she tapped her breast) all year long, but now it is bubbling up.” What a remarkable realization wells up in this energetic senior woman.

Let’s join Miriam for these next several weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Let’s collect lists of the many people, things and situations for which we have a clear or emerging gratitude.

Sacred Spaces –
What are your own sacred spaces - places you have had or need to live and grow, survive difficulties and stand in wonder-  places you go to, create, recognize. Holy places. Maybe churches, maybe outdoors. Who knows where? Do you?

Meaning Makers -
Who helps us understand the roller coaster ride that is called life? Who inspires us? Who has challenged us to be satisfied and grateful for life and who has taught us to be dissatisfied and thereby to be and do more?


Consensus builders-
Who are the ones in your world (or the big world) who help the future happen because they value compromise over rigidity?  How do they do it? What lessons are in it for you?

Whole Makers-
The primary wholemaker, according to theologian Ilia Delio, is Jesus. “He brings together what is fragmented and divided,” she says.  Who stands in His shadow for you? Who creates unity while letting people be themselves?

This is not the usual  list of people, situations and things for which people are encouraged to be grateful. Got any more?
~Joan Sobala, SSJ






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Here’s an invitation: On Wednesday, November 20th, our Fresh Winds conversation turns to our gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual brothers and sisters and how they are both church and received as church.  Originally, Bishop Clark was to lead our conversation. Regrettably  for him and us, he couldn’t be with us. Standing in for him are Mary Ellen and Casey Lopata , founders of Fortunate Families, and recognized national speakers about families of LGBT men and women.  Bring friends with you when you come to our motherhouse, 7 – 8.30 pm.

What's the Backstory

Dear friends,

Among the recently coined words that people are using is backstory as in  “ Here’s the backstory on this late-breaking news.”

We used to say “background”, but I think backstory is useful in a different way. Background  leaves people with facts but not necessarily with an experience to walk around in.

My friend, Bill Winfield, recently died on a Friday at Strong  Hospital. Two days later, his great-granddaughter was born at Strong. One backstory that allowed Bill’s funeral to have a measure of joy was the realization that God claimed Bill but gave the family new-born life as well.

Backstories of faith are not necessarily seen on the faces of people we meet.  We have to spend time with them. Listen to what emerges as they share their thoughts with us.

Next weekend, we’ll hear the biblical story of Zacchaeus.(Luke 19.1 – 10) Go read it for yourself. Even try reading it outloud. What's his backstory? How was he raised? Why did he become a tax collector? Was he a good one? Was he honest? Did he hear Jesus tell the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector? (We heard that one last week.in Luke 18. 9 – 14.) Did he wonder if he was like that tax collector? The  text doesn’t tell us Z’s backstory. That gives us a chance to wonder, create Z’s character, walk with him. And then there was the day that Zacchaeus and Jesus met. Zacchaeus in the tree. Jesus gazing up at him. Did they take each other’s measure? Did they wonder where each had come from, why they were so aware of one another?

Jesus and Zacchaeus. Two stories. Two backstories. One shared moment of grace.

This week, find someone gazing at you. Meet his/her eyes. Respect the richness of that person’s journey. What drives him/her up his own  tree?  Here is our own Zacchaeus whose story and backstory intersects with ours. Be conscious of the connection. Be enriched and humbled.

Blessings on your week,

Joan Sobala, SSJ

Be Saintly

Dear Friends,

I know I did All Saints Day and All Souls Day last week, but this time of year the sweeping winds and swirling leaves and shortening days somehow keep before my mind’s eye the topic of saints and life beyond our known life. This week, however, I’ll be brief and offer for your delight some thoughts from a man named Matthew R. Brown. Though I can’t provide you with any information about the author, his words speak to us of the vastness of the great cloud of witnesses of which we will be a part when we cross over. Brown writes:

It is the glory of the Church that it cannot name all the saints.

It is the glory of the Church that it cannot remember all the saints.

It is the glory of Christ that we cannot count all the saints…

The faithful cling to the roots of the saints, growing up from the ground.

How many saints there are, with more becoming so every day.

Now go out and be sainted.

Be saintly. It is a daring adventure beyond imagining in God’s love story with people like you and me. 

~Joan Sobala, SSJ